Thursday, November 5, 2015

Hillcrest and Sparta begin post-season play tomorrow night on the road

Hillcrest High School and Sparta Academy have both had good
football seasons this year, and both teams will begin their playoff runs
tomorrow (Friday) night when they go on the road for first round games.

Hillcrest will travel to McLemore Field in Montgomery to
play Montgomery Academy for the first time in school history. Tomorrow night’s
game will also mark Hillcrest’s 11th all-time trip to the state playoffs and
will also be Hillcrest’s third straight trip to the state playoffs. Hillcrest
hasn’t won a playoff game since the 2000 season, so a win tomorrow night will
propel the Jags into the second round for the first time in 15 years.

Sparta will travel to Torbert Field in LaFayette to play
Chambers Academy for the sixth time in school history. Sparta is 3-2 all-time
against Chambers. Tomorrow night’s game will also mark Sparta’s 17th all-time
trip to the playoffs and will also be Sparta’s fourth straight trip to the
postseason. Sparta hasn’t won a playoff game since the 1997 season, so a win
will send them to the semi-finals for the first time in 18 years.

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The ninth weekend of the college football season has come
and gone and LSU remains the only unbeaten team in the SEC. However, that could
change this coming Saturday when the Bayou Bengals take on 7-1 Alabama in
Tuscaloosa. That game is scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast
on CBS.

In addition to that game, there will be six other games
featuring head-to-head match-ups between SEC teams. It’ll all get started when
Mississippi State plays at Missouri tonight (Thursday) at 8 p.m. (ESPN). Games
on Saturday will include Kentucky at Georgia, South Carolina at Tennessee,
Vanderbilt at Florida, Arkansas at Ole Miss and Auburn at Texas A&M.

With that said, here are my predictions for this week’s
slate of games. I like Alabama over LSU, Texas A&M over Auburn, Mississippi
State over Missouri, Georgia over Kentucky, Florida over Vanderbilt, Tennessee
over South Carolina and Ole Miss over Arkansas.

Last week: 6-0. So far this season: 64-13.

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This past weekend also marked the ninth weekend of our local
ESPN College Football Pick ‘Em Contest. Sharon Peacock remained in first place
for the sixth week in a row, and Ricky Taylor remained in second place for the
third straight week. Hunter Norris jumped from fourth place to third place, and
Ricky Powell dropped from third place to fourth place.

Casey Grant remained in fifth place, and Mike Dailey went
from seventh place to sixth place. I went from eighth place to seventh place,
and Deagan Dailey dropped from sixth place to eighth place. Sam Rowell remained
in ninth place for the second straight week, and Jeremy Matheny remained in the
No. 10 spot for the second straight week.

If you’re one of the contestants in the contest and didn’t
do well over the weekend, don’t sweat it. We’ve got four more weeks to go
before the end of the season, and the Top 10 could change a lot over the course
of the next month.